


Incidents and Accidents

by mcgarrygirl78



Series: Gentleman Prefer Blondes [8]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Friendship, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-05
Updated: 2014-10-05
Packaged: 2018-02-20 00:46:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2408951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was too much and the waves threatened to pull Erin under.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Incidents and Accidents

“Erin?”

“I don’t want to talk right now.”

“I think we should…”

“I don’t care what you think. I don’t want to talk right now.”

“Baby…”

“Shut up!” Erin exclaimed.

There was a long silence in the bedroom they sometimes shared. Erin went over to the window and lit a cigarette. Dave just stared at her. There was a lot to say but she didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want to fight even if he wanted to make her listen more than anything.

Dave wished he had the strength to get up from the bed. He would grab hold of her and make her listen. That probably wouldn’t end well. Erin was not the kind of woman you grabbed and made see sense…she was not the kind of woman you grabbed at all.

“You could’ve died.” She finally said, taking a deep inhale of her Marlboro Light.

“I know.”

“David, I don’t know if I can do this.”

“What?” Dave asked.

“This.”

“C'mere, baby, and sit down with me.”

She didn’t want to. She didn’t want to love him as much as she did. His job was dangerous and one day Erin was going to get that call that some psychopath had killed him. She would become paranoid every time the phone rang or whenever Dave had to go. Those two things happened so often Erin knew she was setting herself up for a major disaster.

Tonight had been a plain old Wednesday. It was like any other except that she actually made it home at a decent hour. Dave was working late but when he called that afternoon they made plans to spend their late evening and night together. So when Erin came home she decided to experiment with cooking. She grabbed the Asian fusion cookbook that Daniel bought her last Christmas before going to the refrigerator for the meat she bought a few days ago. The phone rang and Erin picked up the kitchen extension.

“Hello.”

“Erin.”

“Hey! You won't believe what I'm doing. This is going to sound insane, and maybe it is, but I'm cooking. OK, I'm not cooking yet but I will be in a little while. What are you doing? You should come over and taste test for me. I'm using that fusion cookbook Daniel bought for me. I know it was a gag gift but I’ll show him…I'm going to cook something. Dave always cooks the most amazing things for me and just once I want…”

“Erin.” The tone of Nora’s voice made her stop talking.

“What? What's wrong?”

“I'm going to come over and pick you up.”

“Why? Nora, what's wrong?”

“David just called me.” She replied.

“David?” Erin’s stomach dropped. She felt faint so she grabbed the edge of the counter to keep from passing out. “Nora...Nora, what happened?”

“He’s been in an accident in Baltimore.”

“Oh my God, oh my God, is he alright?”

“He’s going to be alright. We have to go and pick him up. I'm coming over to pick you up and we’re going to Baltimore. I need you to hang up the phone; I'm leaving the house right now.”

“OK, OK.”

“I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Nora said.

Erin hardly knew what happened next. She remembered hanging up the phone. She remembered the bile in her throat and the throbbing in her skull. She remembered Nora arriving and helping her out to the waiting Oldsmobile. The drive to Baltimore took over an hour but Erin could hardly recall it.

The car was eerily quiet…Nora didn’t even put on the radio. There was no conversation, Erin’s mind was empty. The only thing she could think of was the million and one ways David could’ve died. No, Nora said he was alright. Hadn’t she? Erin couldn’t remember. She couldn’t remember anything since she answered the phone.

When she first saw him in the ER, Erin had no idea how she didn’t burst into tears. He was alive, yes, but banged up pretty good. There were cuts and bruises on his face. His left arm was broken and he’d had difficulty breathing at the scene. A thorough examination found no internal injuries.

That was enough for Dave; he was ready to go. This started a bickering match with the doctor that the FBI Agent eventually won. He promised to go home and rest. He promised to take the medication if the pain got too bad and to return to a hospital at the first sign of trouble. He promised not to go back to Quantico for at least a week, which made him cringe but he did it.

Max Ryan wasn’t having it anyway. The BAU Unit Chief was at the hospital as well and Erin got her first glimpse of the “legend”. It took every fiber of her being not to send him crumbling to the ground. Nora kept the two of them separated as she looked after David. He tried to talk to Erin but she wasn’t having it.

It was Nora who got him out to the car and into the back seat. He wanted Erin to get in the back with him but she just got into the passenger seat and off they went. Nora drove back to Erin’s house. They had already talked about it; they were taking him back to her place because the flight of stairs would prevent his escape. They took their time but they got him upstairs and into the bedroom.

“Can I just ask one thing?” Nora asked as they deposited Dave on the bed.

“Sure.” He said, grimacing from the pain but not letting it get the best of him.

“How did you get my number?”

“I'm in the FBI, Nora; I can do almost anything.”

“Well, that’s scary.” She replied. “You're lucky I like you. I might be lucky you like me.”

“Yes, I do.” Dave smiled. “I can lose it if you'd prefer. I just thought it would be easier for Erin if you were there for her because I thought she might be upset.”

Erin was right there when he said it. She was sitting at the bottom of the bed getting him out of his shoes. She still had nothing to say and that bothered Dave. He didn’t know how to get her to open up. He didn’t want her to explode in front of Nora but surely she’d seen it before.

“No, its fine.” Nora said. “I'm glad I could be there, and I'm glad you're going to be alright.”

“Thanks.”

“I’ll walk you out.” Erin said, getting up from the bed. The two women walked out to the front door.

“Are you alright?” Nora asked.

“Mmm hmm,” she nodded.

“Erin…”

“I'm fine.” She put her hand on Nora’s shoulder. She saw her best friend’s skeptical face so she put on a smile. “I am…seriously. You go home to your husband and son and we’ll be fine here.”

“Call me later, or I’ll call you.” Nora kissed her cheek. “I love you.”

“Love you too.”

Erin locked up the house and went back to her bedroom. He lay on the bed looking uncomfortable. The mean part of her wanted to leave him that way. The loving part of her wanted to hold him to her and cry her eyes out. The ‘Erin’ side of her wanted to burst out the door, run until she couldn’t anymore, and scream into the night. She didn’t know how to be who she needed to be right now. She didn’t know who she needed to be. This was too much and the waves threatened to pull Erin under.

 

“Did you at least catch the son of a bitch?” She asked. Erin finished off her cigarette and looked at Dave lying on the bed. “Please tell me he’s in jail.”

“He’s in the hospital. The idiot got out of his wreck of a car and tried to make a run for it. He collapsed a few feet from the scene.”

“What did he do?”

“Five bank robberies over the course of nine months in the suburbs of Baltimore. He’s part of a crew…surely he’s rolled on his boys by now.”

“Good.” She nodded.

“C'mere, baby, and sit with me.” Dave said.

Erin nodded, sitting on the side of the bed. She sighed and leaned her forehead against his. Dave reached up with his uninjured hand, caressing her face. When he kissed her that’s when the tears came.

“Baby…”

She rushed out of the room and Dave couldn’t stop her. He was still confined to the bed; it was starting to piss him off. He had never seen Erin cry, he’d seen her upset but never cry. Today wasn’t going to be his day either. Dammit he was hungry, he had to use the bathroom, and he wanted to comfort his girlfriend. Dave Rossi really needed to catch a break…he just couldn’t keep up with it.

***

“Are you awake?”

Erin asked the question hours later as she lay in bed in the dark. This was not how she planned on spending her Wednesday. She had planned to feed David, and if he survived that she planned to make love, sleep like a baby, and get up early for meetings in the morning. The meetings had been postponed, there had been no dinner, and there had surely been no lovemaking. She was just happy that he was lying beside her right now and not in some hospital bed in a coma or worse.

“Yes.”

“Why? I thought that medication was supposed to knock you out.”

“I am strong like ox.” Dave put on his fake Russian accent. It always made Erin laugh but tonight it didn’t. “We’re going to have talk, Erin. We shouldn’t be silent about this right now.”

“I hate your job.”

“The feeling is mutual.” He replied.

“You hate your job?” She turned on her side and looked at him.

“I hate _your_ job.”

“Oh that’s not fair, David, my job can't kill me.”

“Really? So all that stress is good for you?”

“I'm not stressed.” Her tone went up. Then she backed down. “Stop it. We need to talk about you.”

“I'm gonna be alright. I got a little banged up; it’s not the first time. I do what I do to get criminals off the street. It’s not always easy but I'm good at it and I love it too.”

“I don’t want to get the phone call David. Tonight scared me to death. And who even knows if you died out there if someone would even think to call me. I'm not your next of kin…I'm not your wife.”

“Max knows to call you if anything happens to me, Erin.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.” She said.

“OK.”

They were quiet in the dark. Dave heard Erin sniffling and he wanted to comfort her but didn’t know how. He wasn’t leaving his job just as she wasn’t going to leave hers. They had to find a balance or this relationship wasn’t going to work. Dave wasn’t letting her go either. He knew you couldn’t always have everything you wanted but it had been a lot of years since he felt so right. Work was great, his personal life was fantastic, and he didn’t plan to let that smash to pieces like the car he’d been driving in that afternoon.

“I love you.” She said. “I love you, and I worry about you every time you leave. It’s stressful.”

“I know.” Dave nodded. “You gonna stand by me though, right?”

It was better to just ask the question. Erin Strauss wasn’t the lying kind. Maybe she couldn’t handle it…Dave would never hold that against her.

“At least until you’ve properly healed. I could never leave a man all beat up like you are.”

“Besides, it’s probably a bad idea to dump me while I'm trapped at your house.” He added.

“Exactly.” Erin kissed him. “I know this might sound horrible but a part of me doesn’t want to know when you're hurt.”

Dave pulled her close. He was in pain and it probably wasn’t the best idea to have someone leaning on him but he didn’t really give a damn. He needed to feel her, inhale her scent and her being. She had been too far away, emotionally and physically. There was only one way to fix that; pain be damned. She stroked his bruised face.

“So no more phone calls?” He asked.

“I don't know; it’s something I need to think about. I don’t want you thinking that I don’t care. I probably care too much. I just…I need to distance myself from that somewhat.”

“I understand.”

“Do you?”

“Yeah.” He kissed her. “I truly do, and I appreciate your honesty. So now we go to sleep, and tomorrow you can make me breakfast.”

“I can have breakfast delivered.” Erin replied, smiling. “You might like it better that way. You've already been beat up; we don’t need to add food poisoning to the list.”

“I'm gonna teach you the fine art of cooking and you're going to like it.”

“That might take forever, David.”

“If it does, I’ll love every moment of it.”

 _So will I_ , Erin thought but didn’t say aloud. She moved out of his arms but still held on to his hand. Feeling somewhat at peace, she was finally able to close her eyes and go to sleep. Dave was there, he was beside her, and he was holding on. She didn’t know when the next bad thing was going to happen but the next good thing would be them waking up together. Erin would always be grateful for that.

***

  



End file.
